Alfred de Vigny strikes many readers as the least effusive and most reserved of the French Romantic writers. Unlike such counterparts as Alphonse de Lamartine and Victor Hugo, who boldly asserted their confidence as they set out to define the ideals of postrevolutionary France in their writings, Vigny resorted to the utilization of symbols to disguise his ambivalent feelings and changing attitudes concerning the predicament of the individual. His apparent reticence proceeded from a hesitation to commit himself wholeheartedly to the resolution of specific problems that beset French society during the Bourbon Restoration (1815-1830), the regime of Louis-Phillipe (1830-1848), and the first decade of the Second Empire (1852-1861).

Vigny's evolution from the pessimistic posture of his earlier years to cautions and qualified optimism expressed in the posthumously published Les Detinées (The Fates, 1864) resulted from his unflagging reflection on the human situation. His attitude stemmed from his...